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The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has replied to a group of prominent Catholics who have criticised the UK government’s welfare policies as deeply harmful – but the authors of their Open Letter to Iain Duncan Smith say that he is still missing the point on the harm his policies are causing.

The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), a government department which appears to be increasingly and inappropriately fashioned by the the ideological welfare-cutting politics of secretary of state Iain Duncan Smith, displays some interesting communications priorities.

UK statistics authority chair Andrew Dilnot has criticised work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s misleading claims on the impact of capping benefits. This is not the first time that he, and the department he heads, have been found to have misused statistics.

As elements of the government’s Welfare Reform programme meet growing opposition, the Secretary of State comes under increasing pressure. Defeat in the Court of Appeal over Workfare and increasingly vocal opposition to the bedroom tax has seen Iain Duncan Smith stridently defending his policies.

UK Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has reportedly repeated unfair misrepresentations against a young woman whose court battle exposed the injustice of forcing unemployed people to work for free.

You once described yourself as “the quiet man”. It didn't quite work for you at the time, which is a pity, because quietness implies a capacity for reflection, listening and, in the words of our Quaker 'Advices and Queries', for finding space to “consider it possible you may be mistaken”. These are not qualities which are much in evidence among our noisier politicians.